bonio

Not sure that "necessary" and "bike" are words that really belong in the same sentence.

@Stingy1 Thanks for setting me right hadn't seen the breakdown. I seem to remember figures for cyclists went up significantly during covid, because cycling suddenly became trendy. So perhaps the decrease reflects people giving it up now life is returning to normal.

Golden opportunity for me to be a bit of a nob: If you take out the lockdown years (2020, and 2021) KSIs for 2022 are 3% down on 2019. Same for just the fatalities. 2023 figures aren't yet out*. But perhaps the figures for your area are different. * link to gov.uk

The way in Suffolk is to go at 40, regardless of what the limit is.

Welcome back to biking! Would love to see some pics when you collect it. Is it just cosmetic attention? If it's been idle for a year might need a bit of checking out? But perhaps the guys at the workshop have been taking care of it.

CRF or the NC are nice ideas. Or perhaps the CB500X as a happy mid-point between the two. I imagine your roads are not unlike my local roads, and although I've not ridden one, it would on my list if I was looking for a bike for riding around here. (I'm not looking for one, because the Suzuki DRZ400SM fits the spot perfectly, and I reckon this *would* be the bike for you were you up for doing your own servicing).

Congratulations on the speedy pass! And the new bike (and for posting a pic ). Same engine as the Deauville (so I read), so basically a completely bullet-proof machine. Should be a great bike to ride and get out on. But yes, you'll have to wait for the ice to disappear first.

The big change is, Stu finally gave us a like button.

When I was doing DAS, my instructor would occasionally ride behind me and give me a running commentary on what to look out in the ear piece: "Pull in here, because you don't want to filter past a junction. Look out for the pelican crossing ahead; there's a person waiting at it on the right, so the lights could turn red any time... Notice the junction marked, and if you look out the left you can see a tractor exhaust above the hedge, so expect to meet it at the junction". I learned that he saw 100 times more things than I did.

No plans to go to the IOM at the moment, but who knows, and it's good to be forewarned.

Blimey, never seen you here before. How long have you been awol?

Once had to send my bike in along with a cardboard box of bits.

Too true. I spent some time in Colorado. Winter was the best time of year - bright sunny days with blue skies, views that stretched a hundred miles down the edge of the Rockies, perhaps skiing on Saturday or just a walk round the park in the happy knowledge that the rattlers and the bears were all hibernating. Every now and the snow would settle even at our low elevation (6500ft) and we'd go sledding. Dang it I miss that place.

Using a phone for navigation has a few issues Vibrations can kill the camera. I've heard of this happening on iphones, probably happens on others too. Some companies such as Quadlock and UltimateAddOns make cases that damp the vibrations and are safe for your phone. After 1000s of miles using an UltimateAddOns case with my cheapo Samsung, I've had no issues with the camera. The phone can overheat and shut off. A combination of high summer temperatures, the heavy processing required to do navigation, shutting the phone away in an airless case that heats up an oven, mean that this can happen. It's happened to me a couple of times on hot afternoons. Never been a problem, as I've been riding with others who have proper sat navs. No data at the bottom of your valley. Relying on data being available everywhere might leave you riding around looking for the nearest signal But some nav apps, such as MRA and I think google maps, allow you to download maps so they're always available. No dedicated hard buttons. It's not that easy to poke around at a phone screen when you're stopped at a red light, even if you have magic conductive gloves. A few hard buttons you can activate easily with gloves might help you out. It's not easy to use the phone. When the phone's all cooped up in its case, it's one faff to many to get it out just to take some pics or whatever you do with your phone. It tends to stay there until there's a proper lunch or coffee stop. It's up to you whether these are deal-breakers or not. I've gone the phone route because I got fed up with Garmin and BaseCamp and longed for something that was just a bit simpler to use. Ended up with MRA on the phone, and been happily using it for a couple of years now. Not thinking of going back to sat navs.

But A377 BCD is a tad special. Odd, I can remember my mum's old mini from 55 years ago - JLU823D since I know you were all wondering - but I couldn't tell you the number of any of my previous bikes or cars off the top of my head.

PS I've tried washing it and applying anti rain stuff. Makes precious little difference.

When I was young(er) the rain would bead up on my visor and a nod of the head to the side would see it all gone. But I can only think the law of physics have changed because it doesn't work like that any more. Yesterday is a good example: clear day, then it starts to drizzle a bit and suddenly the visor is all smears and I can only keep going by wiping it every two seconds (didn't help when the car in front kindly squirted me and the visor in screen wash...). Today it was similar: riding through cold, dark fog and all I have on the visor is smears and out of focus vision. Is the anything I can do to being the water beads back?

Nice @rob m. I'd love to get to Spain on the bike, but not quite find sufficient excuse. Hopefully just a matter of time.

That's a nice line up of bikes. Any pics?

I'm hoping the temperatures going to rise a bit before I have to ride home this afternoon. Had to scrape the ice off the seat this morning.

Welcome from a fellow ex-GS rider

Congratulations! And welcome in.

Frozen fingers today. Had to concentrate hard to make them squeeze the front brake. Oddly only on the right hand; the left hand was ok. Nice to find some sunshine to ride in for a change

I so dislike winter gloves... they're like trying to ride with hands that have gone blind. I know they're hideous to look at but have you thought about bar muffs (or whatever they are called)?

@Gerontious Say hi to snod